"Robert Grossbach - Of Scorned Women and Causal Loops" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grossbach Robert)

beyond the complex, he thought he could see sheep grazing and paused
for an instant to squint before moving through the entrance.

He signed in at a long, polished wooden desk, filling in the “Name,”
“Entry Time,” and “Person to Be Seen” columns, but leaving blank the
“Purpose of Visit” space. When the young receptionist had finished on the
phone, she presented him with a plastic yellow rectangle that identified him
as a visitor, “lei est votre—”

“English will be fine,” he said.

She nodded. “Here is your badge, Inspector. Someone will be out
momentarily to escort you.”

He grunted a thank-you, then went to stand awkwardly near one of the
vinyl waiting area couches, pausing to knead his eyebrows and temples in a
futile at-tempt to ward off the headache he already knew was inevitable.
When he looked up a moment later, a fortyish woman stood before him,
wearing a loose blouse and pleated gray skirt.

“Inspector Lagrange?”

Short black hair framed a slightly roundish Kewpie-doll face: button
nose, cherub mouth, dark red lipstick, touch of rouge. Lagrange thought her
just short of pretty. “I’m here to see Dr. Elizabeth Parkes,” he said.

“I am she.”

Apparently, his expression did not sufficiently conceal his reactions.

“I do not fit your conception of a nuclear physicist?”
 He smiled back. “No, no, it’s just. . . the receptionist said they were
sending somebody. I assumed — “ He waved his hand. “It’s of no
importance.”

She stared at him bemusedly. “Well then, shall we?” She motioned
toward a doorway. “I assume you’d like a look at the experiment first?”

“That would be fine, yes.”

She held the door, and he stepped through.

The hangar area was vast; they padded along a blue steel catwalk
past a dozen rows of huge, thrumming machines. “Generators,” said
Elizabeth, over the din. “They feed the superconducting magnets for the
accelerator.”

“They give me a headache,” shouted Lagrange. He now had pain in
his head and his ass; he supposed somewhere along the way he’d stub a
toe. They emerged finally into the rear half of the building, seemingly empty